Digimon Dusk: Evolved
by Gamekrazy
Summary: When you'r one of the seven Global Moderators of one of the Digital Worlds governmental superpowers, a lot of responsibility is put into your hands. Dusk: Evolved follows the tale of the Seven Demon Lords, dealing with these responsibilities. R&R Please!
1. Enter Jiro

"Where... am I?..." Jiro asked himself, still half asleep, but knowing full well he was not in his bed. It was dark, nothing could be seen, and the floor was cold. Metallic feeling. Yes, this was not his house. He attempted to get up, but realized he was holding something. Something breathing. He could feel a small pair of bat wings protruding from its back, and recognized subtle snoring noise it made. "Phascomon?" Jiro questioned. He waited. No response. He was asleep as usual. That was a good thing, if he had gotten an answer, he would have been suspicious. Phascomon had been with him for nearly three weeks now, and more often then not he was asleep. And he was a heavy sleeper at that. Not the type of mon' who enjoyed being woken up either. Holding Phascomon in one arm, Jiro used the other to help himself up to his feet.

Looking around, only darkness surrounded him. He began to think of a way to get some light in the room, however as said thoughts began to run through his head, his problem was solved for him. Jiro shielded his eyes with his free hand as the ground began to glow red. Screens all around him began to light up, and by the time his eyes adjusted to the light, he could see exactly where he was. He was standing on a large circular platform, appearing to be very high up in the air, considering that he could only see blackness below. Around him were various floating digital screens, depicting various things, from strands of code, words depicting the status of something, to what seemed like security camera videos, but seemed to be recorded from a more omnipotent point of view. What really caught his attention however, was the symbol on the floor. Taking up the entire platform was the image of a red, four winged bird, its beak bearing four red eyes, looking downward, dividing the image symmetrically. The bird was surrounded by a red circle, and Jiro quickly identified it as the mark of the Crimson Phoenix, the organization that governed the lower hemisphere of the digital world. He was drawn out of his pondering when he heard a voice. A female one.

"Greetings, Jiro Matsumoto." It said. Jiro quickly located the speaker, a girl with long, blond hair, and fair, light skin on a platform slightly higher then the one he was standing on. She was was wearing a very dark purple long-sleeved vest over a black shirt, and matching dark purple pants. She looked to be about 15, Jiro's age, and had a Dracmon standing next to her, arms folded behind his head. Jiro assumed that this was her partner. "I would like to be the first to welcome you to the Crimson Phoenix main headquarters..."

**Digimon Dusk: Evolved**

**Chapter 1: Enter Jiro! The Busybody Sin of Sloth?**

"The name is Megumi. My friends usually call me Meg, but you can call me Megumi." The girl said, looking down at Jiro. "I happen to be the head Administrator here."

"The... Administrator?" Jiro echoed. That was rather unexpected. The head admin was the digital worlds version of the president. They were the highest rating official within their circle of power. Why would she want to talk with him?

"After an extensive selection process, you've been chosen for the post of Global Moderator." She continued. Jiro blinked, rather taken by surprise at the notion.

"Me?" He questioned "A GM? Seriously? Why!"

"You seem qualified." Another voice said. A male one. It came from the girls partner, Dracmon "You have a sin as your partner, correct?"

"Sin?" Jiro responded to the imp, confused. Dracmon pointed to Phascomon, sleeping in Jiro's arms.

"Him. The one in your arms." Dracmon continued "He has the potential to become Belphemon, the Deamon Lord of Sloth once he has achieved his mega." Dracmon crossed his arms "Of course, there are other factors involved, but I would rather not get into the details. You've been chosen kid. Thats all there is to it."

Jiro looked down at his slumbering partner. Did he really make him qualified to be a mod? He had only been with the little fella for a few weeks! Half the time of which, he had been sleeping.

"Of course, we won't force you." Megumi continued, noting Jiro's silence. "The gate back to the real world is right outside. Take the lift behind you to the base floor, and continue down the hall till your out. You can't miss it." Jiro again was silent, his view shifting from the administrator to his partner and back again. He didn't fully understand still. This all seemed thrown upon him. Then again, he was being offered a fairly large role in the Digital Worlds governmental system, he couldn't just turn it down...

"Well..." He responded, scratching the back of his head "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try it out..."

"Alright, can I take the kid now?" A new voice sounded out from behind him. Turning, he was greeted with another boy, this time with short, messy black hair, looking to be right around Jiro's age was standing on what he could only assume was the lift to the lower floors of the complex. He was wearing the same outfit that Megumi was wearing, and he soon realized, so was he. An Impmon was standing beside the boy before him, leading Jiro to the conclusion that it was the boys partner.

"All yours Hyde." Megumi responded "Show him around first, and when your done take him to the Native Forest. We have several reports of Gazimon claiming that the land there is 'theirs' and it seems they don't realize that they are bothering others, or have forgotten exactly what happens to those who do. Id like you two to... 'remind' them."

"Alright then." The boy, Hyde apparently, said, nodding to the admin, and motioning for Jiro to follow him "Come on kid, lets get movin. I don't have all day after all."

Nodding, Jiro glanced momentarily back at Megumi and Dracmon, who also motioned for him to follow, and he stepped onto the lift, and as it clicked and began to descend, the boy spoke.

"The names Hideki." He said "But please, call me Hyde. I hate the full name."

"Er... Ok..." Jiro mumbled, still a bit taken in by all this "If I may ask... what exactly did she mean by... 'remind' them?"

"Wow, you really are clueless, aren't ya kid?" A different voice responded, this time belonging to Impmon "The only laws the Crimson Phoenix enforces are those that protect the peoples free will. Those digimon are claiming that the land they are on is theirs only, and are kicking out anybody else who ventures on it. Considering they aren't listening to what others want, we have to step in and show them how to 'share.' If you don't know what im talking about, you must really be dense."

"I... think I get it..." Jiro said, nodding "Seems sorta... communistic to me..."

"Are you kidding me?" Hyde said, the lift clicking as they reached their destination floor and they got off. The walls were made of a sleek dark metal here, and there were several hallways that branched off into other places. Several virus type digimon, and some humans that could be assumed to be their partners could be seen going to and frow on business within the building. Some even stopped to glance at them as they walked, noting that their uniforms dictated they were GMs. "In a communistic society, the government owns and regulates everything. You realize how much work that would give us? No way, were not handling that. We believe that the digimon should be smart enough to handle their own affairs without us stepping in. We don't have many laws restricting what people can and cannot do, but we do jump in when certian digimon take advantage of that freedom, impeding the rights others hold."

"Nothin like those angelic airheads up in the Azure Dragons" Impmon continued off of his partner "I swear, up there, you can get pegged for anything! Im pretty sure that even littering is a chargeable offense!"

The Azure Dragons were the organization that governed the northern hemisphere of the digital world, and though Jiro was not well-versed in digital world politics, he knew that it was a far more law-based society when compared to the more free-spirited rule the Phoenix had over its people. However, they were known to have better quality of life then residents of the lower digital world, with a lower rate of thefts and such. Even the wild and untamed parts of their sector of the digital world was known to have some order to it. If Jiro remembered correctly, there were two other organizations within the digital world, the Jade Tortoise and the Silver Tiger, controlling the land around the border, but when one thought of the digital world, these two main empires were the first to come to mind.

The hall let out into a large room with several other hallways connecting to it, with a very large arch-shaped door taking up most of one wall. It was fair to say that this was the entrance hall. The door, rather then being made of sleek dark metal like the rest of the building, it was made up of some type of wood, with very intricate metal framework holding it together. As they approached, the doors swung open outwards, allowing moonlight (geographically, Suzaku City rarely got any sun) to shine through the entrance.

Suzaku City, capital of the digital worlds southern hemisphere, was located directly on the south pole. Despite its location, the city, and the dense forest that surrounded it for several miles, remained at a reasonable temperature. Chilly, like that of a cool evening, but well enough to wear normal clothes. Once one left the Native Forest's treeline, they entered a large snow field, fitting of what one would expect the south pole to be. The city itself, seemingly suspended in nearly endless night, was constructed upon several very tall mountains, almost as if they were floating islands, connected by stone bridges, linking each other at various points, allowing transit between the other mountains. Between the mountains and beneath the bridges were several one-railed tracks in which Trailmon could provide transit throughout the city, and even beyond its borders on. The buildings (the outside, at least) seemed to be made of stone, and were built in what could be described as a gothic style.

Looking upwards, Jiro discovered that the building they had just exited was in fact a large castle, resting upon the middle mountain in the center of the city. Several spires and towers extended off of the main building, even extending onto some of the neighboring mountains. At the top of the castle, two spires extended, forming what looked like a pair of deamon horns. A pair of gargoyles were set upon ledges atop the door, seemingly staring down at Jiro, and only when one blinked did he realize that they were not gargoyles at all, but Devidramon!

"Don't worry bout them" Hyde insisted, seeing Jiro's caution upon realizing the digimon were interested in him "They havn't seen you before is all. They know your with us though, they wont cause any trouble."

Jiro was fairly relived at this information, as the two dragon-like digimon did not seem too friendly. Taking his gaze off of them, but still feeling their eight eyes upon him, he looked over the city. To Jiro's side, the same emblem that he had seen in the admin room was present on the ground, faintly glowing red. Jiro recognized this as a gate back to the real world, as people and digimon alike were appearing and disappearing as they stepped on and off the emblem. He marked this place in the back of his head for when he needed to return home, but for now, Hyde motioned to him to follow, and he continued down a short flight of steps and across one of the large stone bridges to be shown the rest of the city, Phascomon still sleeping soundly within his arms.

The next hour or so was spent wandering around Suzaku City, Hyde informing Jiro of the main important districts and buildings. All over the city, Jiro saw several different digimon of varying stages, rookie, champion… even some ultimate. The majority of them were virus attribute, however he did see data, and surprisingly even some vaccine type digimon. This city seemed to be quite the diverse place. As Jiro observed the other digimon, he couldn't help but realize that the digimon were also observing him, just as the Devidramon had, and just as the other Phoenix members had. He slowly began to realize just how big of an icon he had just became, and his heart began to pound, wondering exactly how he had fallen into this mess, everything seemed to happen so fast!

"Hey… Hyde?" The boy couldn't help but ask, his nervousness showing up in his voice. His guide looked back at him "Eh… did this experience happen as suddenly for you as it is for me? I mean… they could have sent me an e-mail or something instead of sending me here during my sleep…"

"If they had sent me an e-mail, I woulda spammed it immediately." Hyde said nonchalantly "I mean, you do realize just how absurd it would sound, right? Im rather glad they brought me here. Its better to have it said to you in person: Hey! Congratulations! Your one of the Seven Great Deamon Lords, destined to help run the digital world! Yah, I wouldn't a believed that in an e-mail." "I suppose…" Jiro responded, looking down at his digimon momentarily, before continuing "The Seven Deamon Lords… those were the mega digimon that embody the seven deadly sins from the bible… Right?" Jiro wasn't a very religious person, but at least he knew this much.

"You would be right kid, that's what they are." Hyde said "The Crimson Pheonix has up to seven Global Mods operating at any given time, and each one has a potential sin as their partner. Before you go and ask, this fella here becomes Beelzeemon, Lord of Gluttony."

"At least, were supposed to have seven…" Impmon mumbled, crossing his arms "Ever since that punk showed up we've got eight…" "Meg's boy-toy isn't a GM, hes just a mod." Hyde stated "She just gives him special treatment so she can hear him whisper sweet nothings to her…

"Might as well be a GM then!" Impmon rebutted "She sure as hell treats him like one!"

Jiro simply observed the two as they went over their conversation involving the admins love intrest. Impmon seemed to not like the guy, commenting that he only made it this far because of his relation with the admin, and how he nabbed a mission that apparently was supposed to be taken by Rin and DemiDevimon, whoever they were. Though it was clear Hyde didn't particularly like this guy, he did note that he was fairly strong, able to reach ultimate and wasn't all that bad. Jiro marvled at the gossip. It made this thing seem more like a group of friends hanging out, rather then several young teenagers governing a country. As their conversation began to slow to a stop, Jiro decided it was best he spoke again, liking to change the subject to something he could actually talk about.

"So Hyde…" Jiro asked "What was your first day here like? Ya know… as a GM?"

Hyde turned from his digimon back to the new recruit. "My first day?" He questioned, and scratched the end of his chin as he thought "Well… kinda like you. Bouts of denial and nervousness at the beginning, but eventually I liked the idea of it. Kind of an amazing opportunity when you think about it! I was kind of surprised though… Here I am, apparently the partner to the supposed Deamon Lord of Gluttony, but I didn't view myself as gluttonous at all… In fact, im the lightest kid in my class!"

"And he sure as heck doesn't act gluttonous." Impmon continued off of his partner "He shared his food whenever somebody asked for some. I went to school with him one day, and his friends practically ate his whole lunch! Not to mention, he was a bit overly-generous, loaning out his things when his friends needed em, and even giving away some of his things. It doesn't sound that bad, but trust me, it ended up hurting us in the long run." Impmon glanced up at his partner, who looked a little tense at his partners words. Putting that behind him, he turned to talk to Jiro once more.

"I like to think ive grown a bit more backbone since I came here." He said in a rather confident manner "So how about you? You think your sin is fitting?"

"Well… not exactly…" Jiro responded "I always feel a bit… pressured to do stuff, you know? Ive got this brother, Ichiro, back at home, and being older an all, hes done everything Ive done before, and hes done it better. He was at the top of his class grade-wise… the best at sports… not to mention all the girls were flocking after him. I kinda want to be known as something other then 'Ichiro's brother' though… so I try to put extra effort into all I do and…"

"He never gets anything done…" A new voice said. This one was practically mumbling, seeming very sleepy, and came from in-between Jiro's arms. It was Phascomon, the tiny koala monster seeming to sleep-talk into the conversation with them "Hes so stressed… about everything that he does… he ends up doing… nothing…" The tiny koala yawned, and then went back to making his usual snoring noises, having put his two cents in. Jiro was rather amazed he had joined the conversation at all.

"Eh… basically…" He said, using a free arm to scratch the back of his head "The reason I decided to stick around here was because… well… im finally doing something bro hasn't done. Its kinda like… my own thing, you know? And seeing all these digimon watching me go by… It sorta makes me confident in myself, ya know? Even though I don't think this fellas gonna be of much use. Hes only ever assertive when he comes to a rude awakening…"

"Well lets give that a shot, wont we?" Impmon said, reaching a hand out to pinch said digimon, however Jiro hastily swiped his partner away from harm.

"I wouldn't suggest that!" Jiro said, sounding a bit worried "How about we go out into the field before we try something like that… ok?"

Both Impmon and Hyde gave Jiro confused looks, but before they could question him, a loud horn sounded. Beneath the stone bridge they were standing on, a trailmon passed them, pulling into a nearby building that one could assume was the station.

"Well, speaking of the field…" Hyde said, watching the trailmon as it came to a stop "We oughta get on that mission Meg has for us. The forest station is only a couple stops away from here, and if we hurry, we might be able to catch this ride. Hurry!"

Hyde took off down the road, turning the corner that lead the way to the station with his digimon, and Jiro suddenly realized that he should get moving too, and chased after them, still clutching Phascomon close. His nervousness and hesitation were beginning to lift off of his sholders, and he felt a type of excitement begin to build up within him. Perhaps being a Deamon Lord wouldn't be so bad after all. Perhaps it would be that one unique thing that made him… well… him!

Unseen to the two boys, a little pink kuramon floated after them, observing their movements, and transmitting what it saw back to the admin room, where Meg and Dracmon were watching.

---

"Say Meg…" Dracmon said, turning his head to his partner "About their mission…"

"Yes?" She responded, still not turning to look, still viewing the screen as the Deamon Lords boarded the train.

"Didn't we already send…" He began to ask, but cut himself short as Meg gave him a devious little smirk, which soon spread to the impish digimon, who chuckled lightly, and crossed his hands behind his back, returning to view the screen. "You know, its things like this that remind me why I enjoy being your partner…"

"Yes… I know…" She said as she observed "Now lets sit back and enjoy the show, shall we? Im rather interested to see how our new recruit reacts…"

"Indeed…" Dracmon replied "Though Im a bit more interested in our vet… not the new one…"

"Yes…" Meg agreed "He hasn't quite been the same since then… has he?"

---END CHAPTER---


	2. Digisoul Ignited!

A young teenage boy, wearing his own Crimson Phoenix uniform ran through the forest as several green vines attempted to block his path. The large spiny appendages crashed into the ground, surely causing much pain for him should they connect with their target. He ducked and jumped to avoid them, close encounters not seeming to phase the boys calm determined look that he carried on his face.

"Don't die on me here." A voice came from the Digivice Burst hanging at his waist, colored to match his uniform "I won't forgive you if you go and kill yourself just to look cool."

"Don't you worry 'bout me." The boy said, ducking under a thorny vine as it went overhead, barely missing him "I havn't let you down before now, have I?"

"Give it up kid!" The large green monster in charge of the vines bellowed, sending more twords the child, which he dodged "Your not beating me so easily this time!"

"I beg to differ Argomon!" The boy said, stepping aside the vines as he got closer to the digimon's body "All the past times you acted up like this, its always ended the same!"

"Not this time!" He bellowed, and threw move vines, this time pulsing with red energy at the boy. He jumped out of the way once again, now right next to the large plant digimon main body. The boy wiped his messy blonde hair out of his face, and looked up to face Argomon, a look of determination in his eyes. He whipped his digivice off of his belt, and aimed the optical lens at the back twords his opponent.

"Lucemon," He said in a calm manner "Realize."

**Digimon Dusk: Evolved, Chapter 2**

**Digisoul Ignited! The Crossing of Sins!**

"Thanks for the ride Mr Trailmon!" Jiro said, hopping off of the car onto the small wooden platform that was one of Native Forest's stations, according to Hyde, the closest to their destination.

"Don't mention it!" The worm-model trailmon responded "Always a pleasure to have a Demon Lord aboard!"

The Trailmon's whistle blew, and pulled away, leaving the two GM's and their digimon alone at the station, smoke fading in the distance. The two boys hopped off the platform, and continued down a little path into the forest.

"You seem cheerier then you did earlier today." Hyde said as the pair headed into the forest. Gotten over your little nervous streak from before?"

"Eh… to be honest… Im still really nervous…" He said, gripping Phascomon a bit tighter as he slumbered "But at the same time, its exciting… ya know?"

"I suppose…" Hyde responded, putting his arms behind his head as he walked "Ive been with these guys for so long, that whole rush I get before missions seems kinda commonplace to me."

"…How long have you been here Hyde?" Jiro couldn't help but ask. Hyde and Impmon glanced at one another, attempting to recall exactly when they joined up with the Phoenix and officially became demon lords.

"Two years?" Impmon questioned, and Hyde shrugged, supposing the assumption to be correct.

"Eh… I guess that sounds about right…" Hyde said, folding his hands behind his head "Rather odd, feels like we've been part of this whole thing for way longer…"

"I suppose everyone kinda makes you feel like family, huh?" Jiro questioned.

"Eh, if you mean get they get on your nerves to the point where you wanna slap them, then yes." Hyde said, a sweat drop falling down his head "My definition of family at least…"

Jiro chuckled lightly, not positive if Hyde was joking or not. They continued down the path, simply making conversation, not doing anything eventful really, until they heard voices, and could see a large group of cat-like creatures, crowded around one other figure. A small, plant-like digimon, a Floramon was in the center as the group of Gazimon harassed her.

"It's a thousand bits to pass girlie!" One demanded.

"Our turf, our rules! You aint getting by unless you pay up!" Another antagonized.

"I-I was just on my way to the station…" The digimon stammered "I-Im sorry, I don't have enough money… c-can't pay right now…"

"Hey! You guys! Stop bothering her!" Hyde called out, the attention of the group up ahead turning to him "You don't have the right to demand money from her! Just let her pass!"

"Ey… don't have the right?" One of the Gazimon said smugly, walking over to Hyde, staring him in the face "Last time I checked, this here was a free country. Its rather well-known this part of the woods belongs to us. She shoulda came prepared." The other Gazimon in the group gave a few words of agreement.

"I think you're a bit confused by the term 'free.' You can't just go around and disturb others peace just because you claim rights here. Last I checked, this was considered everyone's forest."

"Yah, and 'everyone' includes us!" The head Gazimon said, before motioning to the rest of his 'gang' "Get em boys!"

The crowd of Gazimon cheered in agreement, and began to charge twords Hyde and Impmon. Jiro hadn't said anything this whole time, simply standing behind Hyde and observing. These guys didn't seem to get that Hyde wasn't some random vigilante, or maybe they did, and were simply acting up as a way to assert themselves. Either way, Jiro didn't label them as smart. Hyde motioned to Impmon, who nodded in return, holding out both of his hands, balls of flame appearing within them.

"Bada-Boom!" He exclaimed, tossing the fire twords the approaching Gazimon, which detonated and exploded on impact. The main ones who were hit were knocked backwards, very visible burns upon their fur. Others brushed off the attack, and swung their claws at Hyde and Impmon, who were quick to avoid them. The Floramon had taken this opportunity to get out of the way, and had slipped past the fighting and continued down twords the trailmon station, grateful for the help.

"Ey kid!" Hyde called to Jiro, dodging another claw as it swung twords him, Impmon firing off several more flames at the Gazimon "You gonna help us out over here?"

"Well…" Jiro responded, slightly embarrassed. He looked down at his still sleeping digimon. What exactly could he do? Distracted by his own thoughts he barely had enough time to notice the ground beneath him was displacing itself. The Gazimon had realized that he was there with Hyde. One of the cat digimon burst up from the ground, attempting to dig his claws into Jiro, but he was able to take a step back, avoiding getting sliced, but not being quick enough to avoid having Phascomon knocked out of his arms.

Momentarily, the entire battle seemed to stop. Everyone's attention seemed to focus on the koala digimon as he flew through the air, seemingly in slow motion. He landed with a thud a few feet away from Jiro, and time seemed to stop for a moment, the air still, as all eyes lied on Phascomon. The digimon form shuddered slightly, as it began to pick itself up. Jiro became very nervous upon the realization that he had finally woken up.

"Who…" The tiny digimon demanded as it got to its feet. His voice was much deeper and demonic then when he had spoken to the boys earlier. "Who here had the balls to wake me up!" He turned around to face the group of Gazimon, revealing that his eyes were glowing a deep red. He did not look happy at all. The Gazimon, of course, were as arrogant as they had been with Hyde, and the one who knocked Phascomon stepped up, a smirk on his face, proud of his accomplishment.

"That would be me!" He said proudly, pointing a claw at himself "Aw, did I make the widdle digimon cry?"

"Eucaly Claw!" Phascomon roared angrily, his claws growing quite large as he suddenly charged at the unsuspecting Gazimon. Before the other digimon knew what was going on, he had a rending pain in his side, and gripped himself only to find out that the small digimon had left a very noticeable gash. The koala wasn't done yet, however. He spun around, and charged back at the digimon once more, making a similar gash in his other side. Holding his wounds, the Gazimon collapsed to the ground, shivering slightly, before his body exploded into several bits of data, which floated in the air momentarily, before condensing together into a rather large egg, with several grey rings decorating its surface. Hyde and his digimon were dumbfounded. The little koala had seemed so docile earlier! He saw why Jiro thought waking him was a bad idea. Everything was silent for a moment, before Phascomon turned his head to glance at Impmon.

"Ey, you gonna help us out over here?" He asked in a tone that mimicked Hydes voice earlier. Snapping himself back into the moment, Impmon nodded, and created a pair of fireballs in his hands once again, before throwing them at some of the remaining Gazimon, and the battle began once more, Impmon continuing to singe the enemies with his fire, and Phascomon fending off Gazimon with his claws, matching them blow for blow. The digimon did their best job to keep the Gazimon from their humans, and after several minutes, they had reverted a fair portion of the attacking digimon back into eggs, but there were still many more left standing.

"This is taking too long!" Phascomon said in a rather annoyed tone, blocking one of the Gazimon's claws with his own. He glanced back at his partner. "Hey Jiro! Evolve me!"

"E… evolve!?" Jiro responded, a bit surprised. Hyde was rather taken aback by the notion as well. The kid had said he only was with his digimon for roughly three weeks. Surely he couldn't use digisoul yet! It had taken him several months before he could sustain a stable on his own. This newbie couldn't possibly get it so soon!

"Did I stutter or something?" Phascomon called back, continuing to fend off the opposing digimon with his claws. "Do it!"

Much to Hyde's amazement, Jiro gave a nod, and held out his hand, which became consumed in what seemed to be a dark blue flame. Upon closer inspection, that flame was made up of several little ones and zeros. It was data. It was digisoul.

---

"Ah… this kid seems to have more to him then I first suspected!" Meg said in an amused tone, seeing Jiro ignite his digisoul on the screen she was viewing. "He hasn't been with his digimon that long, right?"

"No, only a few weeks I believe." Dracmon responded "To think he figured out how to do it in such a short amount of time…"

Another screen popped up next to the view of the battle, showing a genaric human figure, and what seemed to be a silhouette of Phascomon. A pair of rings extended from both the human figure and the digimon figure, and connected, glowing a pale green when they did, and then dissipated, before another two came along.

"It seems to be fairly stable as well…" Meg continued as she viewed the screen "Surely enough to hold champion stage long enough to deal with those guys…"

---

"Digisoul…" Jiro said, taking out his digivice IC and holding his hand over it. Upon the IC's screen, a dark blue symbol appeared "Charge!"

The blue flame-like energy flowed from Jiro's hand into the top of the digivice, lighting up the screen, and causing Phascomon to begin to glow. The koala digimon tossed the Gazimon he was brawling with off of him, as his form grew, becoming slightly taller then Jiro, his large hulking body losing its glow, revealing a rather different creature…

"Phascomon…" The digimon said, his voice seeming to echo as he did "Evolve!"

This new monster that began to appear out of the glow seemed to be a large teddy-bear, his dark purple body stitched together carelessly, one paw having three blades for claws, while the other was bare, and a steel tube connecting where his mouth should be to a stitched-on felt heart on his chest, his eyes mere stitched Xes.

"Porcupamon!" The new digimon bellowed as the glow completely faded, and his Frankenstein-like form was completely revealed. Jiro was quite taken aback by his friends new form. Yes, he had been experimenting with his digisoul for quite some time, but he failed to ever actually use it to reach his digimon's champion phase. He never really needed to. The creature standing before him wasn't exactly what he had expected. The other Gazimon were wary of this new digimon, and rightfully so, after what he had done as a rookie. The large teddy bear raised his blade-clawed hand and brought it down upon the Gazimon who he had thrown off himself moments before evolving. The blades cleanly cut through his body, visibly splitting it into three distinct pieces before they dispersed into data, and formed an egg as the others had. The opposing digimon, realizing that this new force was not to be taken on alone, all jumped him at once.

Jiro watched, in a surreal-like state as the cat digimon proceeded to dig their claws into his partners back, their weight causing him to hunch over as his stitches came undone, and what appeared to be stuffing started to spill out of his body. Both the humans and Impmon were thinking the same thing: The entire mob of Gazimon was on him! He was quite literally getting the stuffing kicked out of him! Why wasn't he fighting back? Then the answer came: simultaneously, all of the Gazimon upon him cried out in pain, and ceased their attacks.

What appeared to be white thorn-like objects had just pierced through each of their bodies, straight through their guts and out their back. The cats remained there momentarily, pained expressions upon their faces, before they all exploded into a rather large cloud of data. After another couple of seconds, the data formed into several different digi-eggs, which landed onto the ground along with the other ones Porcupamon had created. Sensing that his opponents were no longer on top of him, the teddy-bear digimon got up, and the spines protruding from his back softened, revealing that they were actually stiffened stuffing. Jiro felt a bit better after realizing this. His digimon had wanted to get cut open all along. He wondered if it had hurt, as the champion didn't seem to show any signs of fatigue. Of course, he was a giant teddy-bear and not a biological being at the moment, so he supposed pain might come differently to him. The digimon took a step twords Jiro, whos hand was still surrounded by his dark blue digisoul, looking up in awe at his partner.

"Now that that's taken care of…" He grumbled, though he lacked a mouth, so it was hard to tell how exactly he did this "Id like to continue my na-"

"Aww…" A new voice interrupted. This one was female, and somewhat sophisticated "I wanted to bat em around a bit. You guys had to go and take down all of em, didn't you?" All four heads turned to the source of the voice. Standing atop a tree branch was another cat-like digimon, though this one was not of the species they had just defeated. She was smaller, for starters. Roughly half the size of the Gazimon. Her fur was jet black, with a few violet stripes twords the end of her tail, and violet tufts of hair coming off the tips of her ears. Standing upright, she wore a pair of violet gloves upon her upper paws. Another voice called out behind them. Also a girls.

"So, I assume you're the new meat we've been expecting?" The voice addressed Jiro. The group turned, and was faced with a human girl. She seemed to be around the age of Meg and the boys, with long, auburn hair running down her head. She was light skinned, and wore the same Crimson Phoenix uniform that the boys were wearing. "Well, I must say, rather impressive for your first time out in the field. Considering its your first time evolving your digimon, you seem to be doing very well…"

"What are _you_ doing here?" Hyde asked accusingly, glaring at the newcomer. Jiro glanced at the boy. These two knew each other? The girl smirked and responded.

"Got sent here to take care of those guys." She said, not swayed by Hyde's hostile tone "I should be asking you the same question."

Jiro didn't dare speak. It was obvious that there was tension between these two. They were all wearing the same uniform, so it wasn't like they were enemies… it must have been something personal that caused this behavior between them.

"We got sent here too." He responded in a stern voice. "Looks like you're a bit late. We handled things already. Pity."

"Yes it is…" The digimon in the tree, BlackGatomon said "Hey Lily, what say you and I beat on these boys?" She said, clenching her fist, a few sparks of electricity flowing from it "Lightning Paw!" She cried, jumping from the branch, her electrified fist heading straight for Impmon, who took a few steps back just in time, the cats fist colliding with the ground, creating a small indent in it as it did.

"But Gatomon…" The girl, Lily, said, shrugging lightly. "You deserve more of a workout then this."

Hyde scowled at Lily, and Impmon scowled at Gatomon. There was a fair bit of tension in the atmosphere, and Jiro could sense that. It told him to stay out of it.

"Impmon!" Hyde called, a light green digisoul flaring up in his hand as he glared at Lily. Impmon nodded, and Hyde pulled out his own digivice, and held his palm over it. "Digisoul… Charge!"

A light green symbol appeared on the screen as it lit up, Hyde bringing his hand down upon the top of the digivice, his digisoul flowing into it, causing Impmon to begin to glow, transforming in the same way Phascomon had.

"Impmon…" His voice could be heard, seeming to echo as well "Evolve!"

Like Phascomon, Impmon began to grow, wings sprouting from his back and extending outward, two tiny horns growing out of the top of his head, his tail becoming longer as what appeared to be a pitchfork appeared before him. Extending his hand, he took hold of the weapon.

"Boogeymon!" The new digimon said, the glow disappearing from his body to further reveal his appearance. His skin was red, and lined with several different black tattoos over much of his body. He twirled his pitchfork in one hand, before pointing it accusingly at the Gatomon.

"Aw… big boy is fighting back…" she said in an amused tone, and knocked her fists together, electricity flowing off of them. Jiro was rather confused. Were they seriously on the same side? Porcupamon simply watched, seemingly indifferent, though it was hard to tell, seeing as he lacked an actual face to express himself with. "Lets see just how long it takes before I smack you to the ground! Lightning Paw!"

Gatomon jumped forward, sending a fist twords Boogeymon's face, who raised his pitchfork to defend against the attack. Gatomon's attack collided with the fork, but balling her other hand into a fist, she dug her free electrified paw into Boogeymon's gut, causing him to cry in pain as the wind was knocked out of him and his body was shocked. Growling angrily, the red demon digimon shoved the cat away from him with the blunt side of his weapon, and drove the pitchfork down twords Gatomon as she tumbled to the ground…

---

"Well, looks like the gangs all here…" Dracmon said as he watched the events unfold "Im rather surprised that they were able to achieve champion with her there. Quite an accomplishment, is it not?"

"I suppose…" Meg said, as a screen similar to the one that had been brought up for Jiro was displayed. The rings that extended from Hyde and his digimon collided to form a dull yellow though, rather than the green that was displayed for the newcomer "Still, hes unstable. I doubt that he will be able to hold that form for very long. They're gonna have to finish things up there quick…"

"Yes, well…" Dracmon said "For now, lets just sit back and enjoy the show. Its always interesting when these two cross…

---

Meg had been right. Hyde could already feel a slight burning feeling coming from his hand where his digisoul was ignited, and could feel his heartbeat increasing. Gatomon had grabbed the outer prongs of the pitchfork before it had impaled her, and pushed it backwards so the end of the weapon hit Boogeymon in the stomach, the same place that she had wounded him earlier. He cringed, but did not let go of his weapon, and that was an issue. Gatomon, her paws still having control over one end of the pitchfork, lifted the weapon –and Boogeymon- above her head, and slammed him down on the ground.

"Aw come on Hyde!" Lily said in a mocking tone to the boy "We thought you were better then this…"

Hyde cringed at these words, and Boogeymon growled, flapping his wings to get up. Pulling his pitchfork away from Gatomon, he brought the weapon down upon the cat digimon once more, this time glowing red.

"Death Crash!" he called, the pitchfork piercing into the ground as Gatomon jumped out of the way. Electricity flowed from her paws once again as she charged back twords her target, preparing to punch him once again, before a voice interrupted.

"Will you two just SHUT UP!" It rang out. Between the two fighting digimon, Porcupamon was standing. He didn't look very happy, though you couldn't particularly tell because he lacked a face. Both the attacking digimon stopped where they were, their attention turning to the teddy bear. He growled angrily, and grabbed up Gatomon by the fur on her neck, bringing her to his (metaphorical) face. "Would you two mind telling me what the HELL is going on?"

Jiro was speechless at the moment. Simply watching the events as they unfolded. Lily crossed her arms and scoffed at the digimon.

"Stay outta it." She said in a rather high-and-mighty manner "It isn't your business to mess with our affai-"

Lily was cut off suddenly, as a beam of light flew and struck the ground before them, causing a small explosion. All six of the children were rather taken aback by this sudden development, and after a short moment of silence, another new voice spoke.

"Aw… so much hostility." It said. From behind a tree, a teenage boy emerged, again clad in the same uniform that the current three children were wearing. He had fair blond hair, and his skin was lightly tanned, with his eyes a light shade of blue. Behind him came what seemed to be an angel, with the body of a small boy, with blond hair like his partners, and several white wings protruding from his back. His body was clothed in a white toga-like outfit, and an additional pair of wings protruded from his head. In one of his hands, he was holding a bright spear of light, presumably what had been thrown to get the groups attention. "Have you two _still_ not gotten over yourselves?"

"Oh goodie… Its Leo." Lily said sarcastically "Here I was thinking you were on a mission."

"Oh, I was." Leo said, brushing his bangs out of his hair "Not too far from here either. Seems Argomon was acting up again. We showed him some good old-fashioned discipline though. Hopefully it sticks."

"So… I assume this is the new guy we've been hearing so much about?" The angel boy said, releasing his light spear, which dissipated as he let go of it. He walked over to Jiro, and leaned a bit closer to him to get a good look. "He doesn't seem like much, but…" His eyes caught sight of Jiro's digisoul, still ignited in his hand. He glanced back at Porcupamon, who was still holding Gatomon, and then back at the human "That fella seems to be holding champion rather well, with no negative effects on the human. You must have a rather good amount of control over your emotions to manipulate your digisoul like that…"

"So we got another Al on our hands here?" Leo questioned, walking up to Jiro as well, both the other two teens and their digimon not moving. Jiro was not sure weather or not to be flattered. It seemed a lot of talk about him was going around…

"…Al?" Jiro could not help but question to the two newcomers. Lily responded to the question.

"Albert. He's our greed." She said "Has a natural knack for using his digisoul like you do. He was using his ultimate stage within a rather short time period."

"And I wouldn't be surprised if this guy turned out the same way." Leo continued. He held out a hand to Jiro "Names Leo. Lord of Pride, and this is my partner, Lucemon." The angel digimon in question waved at the mention of his name. Jiro nodded to the two of them, and shook Leo's hand. Hyde and Lily were giving Leo skeptical looks, which were rather unsettling to the Lord of Sloth. Porcupamon, who had been watching on the sidelines, snapped back into reality when Gatomon poked his arm with a claw.

"Mind putting me down now?" She questioned, and the teddy bear did as he was told, releasing the cat, who dropped to the ground. She glanced over at Hyde, seeing that he was breathing heavily, and sweating quite a bit. "If only this guy had some of that amazing emotion control we were talking about…" She said mockingly. Hyde growled, his digisoul disappearing from his hand, Boogeymon glowing before reverting back into Impmon, the two digimon returning to their partners sides. Porcupamon walked up to Jiro.

"Id like to continue my nap now." He said in a rather annoyed tone. All of these distractions obviously getting to him. Jiro nodded, and his digisoul vanished from his hand, Porcupamon glowing, before shrinking back down into Phascomon, falling into Jiro's arms once more, snoring contently with a rather pleased smirk on his face.

"Aw…" Lucemon said, observing the little Koala monster "Hes pretty cute when hes like that…"

"Can we get going?" Hyde grumbled, turning back to the path "Everythings taken care of here…"

"Oh, Do I sense a tone of failure in that voice?" Lily said playfully, causing Hyde to growl in an annoyed fashion. "That's odd, I thought you would be used to it by now!"

"…Whats with those two?" Jiro couldn't help but ask, looking to Leo for guidance.

"You cant tell?" He said, in a rather surprised tone "They-"

"_Leo_…" Hyde snarled in an antagonizing voice, looking back at the blonde boy, who scratched the back of his head and sweat dropped. He leaned over and whispered to Jiro.

"Ill tell ya later, kay?" He said, smirking, and headed off down the path to the trailmon station which Hyde and Lily were already going twords, Lily apparently poking fun at Hyde, though Jiro was a bit too far away to hear what was being said. He glanced down at his snoozing partner, and then back down the road at the three conversing GMs and their digimon, and couldn't help but smirk. He felt the feeling of acceptance creep over him, and couldn't help but think that he would somehow fit into this dysfunctional group. Returning his Digivice to his waist, he ran down the path after his new colleagues, beginning what was to be one of the most exciting years of his life…

---END CHAPTER---


	3. Enter Lionel

"You KNEW she was going to be there!"

"Oh come on! 'Defeat a group of rebellious Gazimon.' Did you honestly think it would be that easy?"

"So you sent her there before us? You know how we don't get along!"

"Oh please. You both serve under the same organization. You gotta learn to work together sooner or later."

"Like I care!"

"Hey, this is a dictatorship, not a democracy kid. What you want aint my top priority."

Jiro observed as the admin and GM argued with each other. It was rather obvious that Hyde hated this girl with a passion, but he couldn't help but wonder what it was that made him that way. Leo was simply observing the scene as well, his hands in his pockets, with Lucemon standing beside him. Lily was standing a short ways away from him, her Black Gatomon hanging onto her shoulder as they exchanged snide remarks, probably about Hyde, judging from how the two treated each other.

Aside from the four that Jiro already knew, two more teenagers had joined them in the admin room, each with their partners. One was a boy with a head of messy, red hair, with fairly tanned skin, looking of Mediterranean decent. He was sitting on the floor cross-legged, playing poker with what seemed to be a floating, living candle. The both of them were very into their game, not paying any heed to the bickering between the admin and the GM. Earlier, the boy had introduced himself as Al, the GM that they had been comparing him to earlier. Both him and his digimon had excellent poker faces, gazing into each others eyes intensely. The digimon, Candlemon, revealed his hand to his partner.

"Straight flush!" He said contently "Beat that!"

Jiro's attention then shifted to Al, who was smirking deviously and put his hand down for his partner to see.

"Royal Flush." He said in a proud manner "I win. You clean my room tonight."

"S-seriously!?" The digimon exclaimed, dumbfounded "Y-you cant be serious! And that place is a pig sty!"

"A bets a bet." Al responded, picking up the cards and shuffling them together once more. "Unless you wanna go double or nothing? Loser cleans the room _and_ mows the lawn."

"Of course!" The digimon remarked, and swiped the deck out of his partners hand "I shuffle this time though."

"Heh, whatever floats your boat." Al said, and shrugged as his partner shuffled the deck. Jiro took his attention off those two. He had a feeling their game would go on for quite some time. He looked at the other person in the room.

She was another teenage girl, looking about Meg or Lily's age, and like everyone else, she was wearing the same Crimson Phoenix uniform that seemed to be standard for everyone. She had raven black hair, with a single stripe of blue going down it, most likely dyed. On her shoulder was perched a little bat-like digimon, which Jiro recognized to be a DemiDevimon. He assumed this was this Rin person who had turned up in Hyde and Impmon's gossip earlier. Jiro didn't approach her. She seemed scary, and put off that aura like she would rather not be there at the moment, her arms crossed with a rather annoyed looking expression on her face.

"Can we get on with this thing now?" She said in an annoyed fashion, interrupting the argument between the admin and GM. "Or do we seriously need to wait for _him?_"

Jiro assumed that by 'him' Rin meant the seventh demon lord. Looking around the room, Gluttony, Lust, Pride, Greed, and (he assumed) Wrath were all present, plus him, Sloth, left only Envy unaccounted for. Meg glanced over at the girl, and then back down at Hyde.

"If you've already been introduced to the newbie, you can leave." She said, scoffing at Hyde, who crossed his arms and headed off twords the lift, Impmon in tow. Rin walked twords it as well, but Meg spoke up once again "You stay here Rin." She instructed "Ive got an assignment I need to send you on."

Rin gave a dismayed groan, and returned to her spot. It was obvious she was not enjoying herself. Nobody else seemed to be leaving. Hyde was the only one who boarded the lift and left the room. Leo, Lily, and Al all decided to stay.

"Can you just give me the mission and let me be on my way?" Rin complained to Meg, the digimon on her shoulder smirking, seeming amused by the situation. "Id rather not stick around and wait for him. God knows how long hes gonna take to get here."

"Your gonna have ta wait till he gets here, like it or not." Meg told her, crossing her arms "Because he is coming with you."

"_What?"_ She exclaimed, her eyes shooting a glare at Meg. "You know I don't particularly like anybody here, but at least the rest of them are _competent! _Why pair me up with _him?_"

"Because everyone else just got back from a mission." Dracmon said in place of his partner, who was looking annoyed by the current defiance in her subordinates. Jiro was beginning to see how dysfunctional this whole place was. "Leo delt with Argomon, Hyde, Lily, and the Newbie had their own engagement in the Native Forest, and Al was on diplomatic duties in the Southern Snowfields. You and him are the only two operatives who are fresh and ready to go."

"Hes never ready for _anything_ though!" She complained "Id rather go by myself the-"

Rin ceased her complaining at the sound of the lift rising. All eyes turned to the newcomer who rose onto the platform. He was a boy, looking around the age of the rest of the teenagers. He had light skin, looking to be American like Leo, and a short head of unkempt brown hair, matching his deep brown eyes. He seemed tired and out of breath as he stepped off the lift.

"D-Demon Lord of Envy, Lionel reporting for duty M-mam!" He stuttered out, gathering his breath. The rest of the room gave him a funny look, signaling that something was wrong. For a few seconds, he looked back at their stares, trying to figure out what was amiss, before he had an epiphany, and frantically hopped back on the lift as it began to take him down once again. Rin gave an annoyed sigh, and looked back at Meg with pleading eyes.

"Do I _really _have to work with him?"

**Digimon Dusk: Evolved Chapter 3**

**Enter Lionel! The Worthless Demon Lord.**

"Demon Lord of Envy, Lionel _and_ digimon partner Penguinmon, reporting for duty mam!" Lionel announced, his breathing a bit heavy, as was his partners, rather embarrassed by the fact that, in his failed attempt to arrive to the meeting on time he had left his partner behind. His digimon, Pinguinmon, as one might guess from the name, was a short penguin-like digimon, with blue feathers down his back and flippers, and white feathers covering his belly. Atop his head two antenna-like feathers extended behind him.

"…Please don't address me as 'Mam.' it makes me feel old." Meg said, looking down upon the Lord of Envy. Who quickly nodded to the head admin, before she continued, motioning to Jiro, with Phascomon still asleep in his arms. "I assume you heard we have a new member?"

"Y-yah… So im not the new guy anymore?" He asked, and headed over to Jiro "Im Lionel. I just started out here roughly a month ago… I know how it feels to be the new guy, so… I guess I got your back if you ever need it."

"The new kid can already reach his adult form." Rin said in an annoyed tone before the Lord of Sloth could introduce himself, a bit bugged by the fact that she didn't refer to him by name, but he didn't voice it "And a stable one at that. He'll probably be achieving his Perfect soon enough too. I wouldn't worry too much about him."

Lionel was a bit taken aback. That little digimon in the kids arms could already achieve champion? And a stable one? He had been trying all month, and he still couldn't manage to hold Penguinmon's champion for longer than ten minutes! That was a letdown. Here he thought he would have someone to sympathize, train, and socialize with, but apparently not. Oh well. There always was the promise of the new mission he was to be going on. Meg must have had enough faith in him that he would not screw up.

"So…" He piped up, turning back to Meg "Whats this new mission I was told about?"

Behind Meg, a large digital screen popped into existence, displaying what seemed to be a village constructed of mud and clay houses, sitting within the middle of a desert. Nothing was moving, and a time and date was displayed in the upper right corner, depicting that this was a screenshot of the digital world, as the town appeared relatively one week ago.

"This small village exists near the center of the Delta Desert." She said, motioning to the picture. Lionel and Rin were watching intently "Starting nearly a month ago, there were several random disappearances of the villages inhabitants. We sent some Mods to investigate, however their searches came up fruitless. They seemed to have simply left. There were no signs of forced entry or struggle… nothing at all.

We passed the disappearances off as runaways, and thought nothing more of it. There was nothing to prove that they had been forced out of their homes in any way. Roughly two weeks ago, the disappearances stopped as well. Everything seemed calm.

The picture you see before you is the last screenshot of the village we were able to retrieve. One week ago, our Kuramon have stopped broadcasting their video signals from that area. Our tech team has quadruple checked our surveillance programs, and have found nothing wrong with them. We can no longer say this is a simple malfunction with our system, and because it has happened with such close proximity to the digimon disappearances, we believe the events to be connected."

"This is where you two come in." Dracmon continued off his partner "If the events are truly linked, this is no simple matter we want to leave in the hands of the Mods. As GMs, the two of you will be sent to the village, and asked to observe its condition, and relay it back to us when you return. We expect you two to provide at least a bit of evidence as to why these strange phenomenon are occurring."

"Your trailmon leaves in one hour. It will take you to the closest stop to the village, and you will have to walk from there." Meg finished, looking over at the two GMs and their partners. "Any questions?"

"Um…" Lionel spoke up, raising a hand "When you say… 'the two of us' do you mean me and Pen' here? Or do you mean-"

"She means both of us and our partners working together" Rin cut off, glaring over at Lionel and his Digimon "You don't honestly think she would trust you and him alone with something like this, do you?"

Lionel gulped, and shook his head 'no'. He became very nervous. Him and Rin? Working together? Out of all his fellow GMs, he knew Rin bore a great resentment twords him. It seemed that he annoyed her the most, not that he tried or anything. He was the type of guy who wanted everyone to like him, though his efforts didn't seem to work out the ways he planned them to. Rin scoffed at Lionel, and walked over onto the lift.

"Ill see you at the station in an hour." She said as it began to descend "Don't be late again, or im just leaving without you."

He gave a nervous nod as she disappeared, and sighed. It looked like his mission would be a lot less enjoyable then he had first thought.

---

"Its hot…"

"Really hot…"

"So very hot…"

"Extremely hot…"

"WE GET IT! ITS HOT! WILL THE TWO OF YOU SHUT UP!"

It had been DemiDevimon who had snapped, tired of Lionel and Penguinmon's unproductive exchange on how efficiently the sun was performing its job.

"Easy for you to say!" Penguinmon shot back at the bat monster "Who's been sitting perched on their partners shoulder for the past hour! I wasn't built to take heat like this! My skin keeps heat in, it doesn't give it off!"

"Don't go thinking the heat is any easier on me kid! Im wearing all black! The sun is attracted to me just as much as it is to you!"

The two began to quarrel, Lionel jumping in too, and soon the sand dunes were a din of protesting voices. Rin cringed. She couldn't believe she had been restraining herself this long. If she planned to make it through this mission with her sanity intact, she would have to lay down the law now.

"ALL OF YOU SHUT UP!" She shouted, her fists clenched, yellow digital flames flowing off both of them. "UNLESS YOU GUYS FANCY A DIGISOUL FIST TO THE FACE, QUIET THE HELL DOWN BEFORE I DO SOMETHING I REGRET!"

All three of them looked to the human, and, as instructed, shut up. Penguinmon and Lionel took a step back out of fear, while Demi simply gave a cautious look to his partner, though he knew she wouldn't raise a finger against him.

"I don't give a DAM if your body was constructed to withstand subzero temperatures, its going to go through the desert, and your gonna have to deal with it." She growled, pointing an accusing finger at Penguinmon, who gulped "Complaining will change nothing except my attitude, so I suggest you refrain from that. And _you_" She continued, turning to Lionel "You shouldn't be complaining at all. I understand the other two's complaints, but you and me are only human. If I can wade through the hell that is your company within a scorching desert, then I very well assume you should be able to do the same.

"Y-yes mam…" The two of them squeaked out, and shrunk away so as to not anger Rin anymore. She scoffed and continued to walk ahead of the two, her digisoul disappearing from her fists.

Lionel was seriously doubting he could do this. Why pick him anyway? To the extent of his knowledge, he was the weakest out of all the current Phoenix GM's. Surely Rin and Demi could handle themselves on their own right? He was already beginning to feel like he was a hindrance. Perhaps he should volunteer himself to return home. Rin would enjoy that, he could tell. She would be better off with him not around. Suddenly, the earth shook, and there was a large 'Boom' in the near area.

"Wh… what was that?" Penguinmon eeped once it was all over. Rin glanced back at the digimon.

"Seems this is where things _really _start heating up." She said, and took off over the sand dune before them. "Hurry up!"

Hesitantly, Lionel followed after her, him and Penguinmon continuing twords the source of the noise. Well, it looked like backing out wouldn't be an option this time…

---

Just beyond the sand dune was the village in question. Easily recognizable from the screenshot they had seen, but vastly different at the same time, mainly because a number of buildings were crumbled and in shambles, the remaining ones taking on quite a bit of damage from an attacking digimon. It seemed to be some type of large cat creature, its body being made up of flames that burned brightly in the scorching hot desert sun. Rin held up the optical lens on the back of her digivice IC, and its image popped up on-screen.

"Lynxmon… Vaccine attribute, Armor level digimon." She muttered out after reading his information. Several of the villagers were running in the opposite direction of the attacking feline, most of them being rookies. The large cat creature proceeded to continue busting down the town and attacking the innocent bystanders there. Rin turned her head to Lionel. "Hes made of fire. It looks like you got a chance to go and make yourself useful kid."

Lionel gulped and nodded, a blue digisoul flame igniting in his hand. He cautiously looked over at Pen, who nodded slowly, and brought out his own digivice. He was worried and nervous. He didn't want to screw this up. Not infront of her.

"D… Digisoul…" He said, and held his palm over the top of his digivice, a blue symbol appearing on screen "Charge!"

He brought his hand down upon his Digivice, his Digisoul flowing into it, and Penguinmon began to glow brightly, starting to grow larger. His flippers extended into tentacles, others extending from his body, but the two made from his flippers being much larger, complete with a set of finger-like claws.

"Penguinmon…" His voice said, seeming to echo as he grew and changed "Evolve!"

The light faded, and in its place revealed a large squid-like digimon, his main body seeming to be a rather large mouth, held up by his various tentacles, his skin white in color.

"Gesomon!" He called out as the transformation completed, staring down the Lynxmon standing before him. "Hey little kitty! Pick on somebody your own size!"

The Lynxmon turned its head to the large squid digimon, growling angrily. Lionel had a smirk on his face. Perhaps he could do this. His digimon seemed confident enough… and perhaps he could hold out champion long enough to make some decent progress. He could hear his heart pounding lightly against his chest, and could tell that the digisoul burning in his fist wasn't gonna last that long, but hopefully, it would be enough.

"Knights Dome!" He called out, and raised a large wall of water, bursting out of the ground. With a wave of his tentacles, it flew forward and collided with the Lynxmon, who cried out and was thrown back a ways. The various digimon around the battle scene took cover in the remains of the houses around them if they were not able to immediately get out of firing range.

When the steam produced from the water coming into contact with Lynxmon's flaming body faded, and its form became visible again, it was rather obvious that it was not in the best of spirits. It was glaring down Gesomon, a rather angered look within its eyes… inhuman, it seemed. True, digimon themselves were not humans in the strictest sense, but they still had thoughts and feelings just like you would suspect any human to have. The current adversary was different, and Rin, Lionel, and their digimon, understood that.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" Rin demanded "Sorry buddy, but you cant just go around demolishing towns when you happen to get angry. It doesn't work like that!"

The digimon simply growled and roared, not showing its ability to interpreted human speech very well, or perhaps it just didn't care. It didn't look any happier then before though.

"Thermal Mane!" It bellowed, flames flying off its body, scorching anything unfortunate enough to be in its path as they made their way twords Gesomon, who raised another wall of water with his Knights Dome, reducing his flames to nothing but a cloud of steam. Lionel felt his spirits lift. His digimon was doing well as it was. There was no way that a fire based monster would best the water one. He could do this! And then maybe Rin would start to appreciate him a bit more…

"Thermal Mane!" Another voice bellowed, and this time it came from behind the two humans. Lionel's eyes widened as he turned to see a second Lynxmon, the same anger shining through its eyes as there was in the first one, and a large wall of flames heading twords his way. He closed his eyes and held up his arms, as if that would somehow avert the 3rd degree burns that he was about to endure. Those burns stayed within his imagination, however, as he opened his eyes and parted his arms to see that there was a large devil-looking creature standing before him, having swatted the attack away with a glowing red claw. Rin was facing the newcomer, her bright yellow digisoul shining within her hand, the Devimon obviously being the evolved form of her partner.

"What the hell are you doing!" Rin shot back to the boy, looking over her shoulder at her fellow Demon Lord "You gotta keep ontop of the ball pipsqueak! If I hadn't noticed this brute, the two of us would be nice and toasty right about now!"

Lionel felt a pit grow in his stomach at Rin's aggravation twords him, and began to become aware of the heavy beating of his heart resounding in his chest, beginning to sweat slightly, and felt an odd burning sensation in his palm where his digisoul was lit. His confidence had been shot with that remark. Perhaps things wouldn't be going to plan as he had originally thought…

---

"Hey… Megumi?" Jiro asked, looking up at their admin. He had left to home for a short while, checking in to make sure his family had not gotten worried over his absence (they had not) and returned to the castle because of the lack of anything to do. Actually, he had plenty to do at his house at the moment, but whenever he thought about that he never could decide upon what to do first, and ended up doing nothing. Coming here was actually more productive then staying at home, for him.

"Yes?" The admin responded, looking down from her platform at Jiro, not doing anything in particular at the moment either.

"Um… I was wondering… about digisoul." He said, looking down at his hand, where his dark blue flame appeared "I mean… I know the gist of what it does… that its important to digimon evolution and such, but I don't really know exactly what it is... or how it works or anything… Leo mentioned something about emotions earlier…"

"Well, he would be right on that mark kid." Meg responded, a light smirk appearing across her face at the boys question "Digisoul is the digital manifestation of human emotions. I assume you are aware that the digital world was formed from the various human communication networks out there, right?"

Jiro nodded to this. Most anybody knew this nowadays. They taught it in schools. As humans expanded their various forms of digital communication that collectively formed the internet, they spawned a whole alternate dimension. The digital world, the world existing upon the information super highway.

"Well, one of the primary purposes of the internet is for humans to express themselves. Every day humans access the internet to do a variety of things. Play with their friends on online games, hang out in chatrooms, or build virtual shrines devoted to themselves on Myspace or Facebook. Humans broadcast their emotions to the world through the internet, and those signals are what eventually develop into digimon."

"That's why your digisoul is able to evolve us kid. It gives us a charge of the emotions that created us, allowing us to ascend to the next level of evolution." It was Dracmon speaking now. "It's both a good thing and a bad one at the same time though kid. Lets look at it this way: That initial charge you give your digivice is the spark that starts up the engine, and evolves your partner. However, past this initial evolution, you are still providing your digimon with a constant stream of digisoul to maintain this evolution, shown by your 'soul remaining within the palm of your hand." Jiro looked down at his palm where his digisoul was currently burning, and allowed it to fade away "If your emotions are in check, then everything runs smoothly. However, if you lack proper control, it results in what is known as an 'unstable evolution'"

"Unstable evolutions are a danger to both the human and the digimon." Meg said, taking over for her partner "By releasing imperfect emotions through your digisoul, it begins to take a toll on both the digimon and the human. You noticed how Hyde looked back in the forest, didn't you?" The boy nodded, recalling Hydes heavy breathing and sweating. He seemed very fatigued, though he hadn't been doing anything physically straining "His digisoul had became unstable, because his emotions weren't fully controlled anymore. This resulted in his digimon performing poorly and his body receiving increased strain. An unstable digisoul backlashes upon both the human and partner, and several times may cause more harm than good."

"Additionally, digisoul has some other uses at times…" Dracmon continued, wrapping things up "Take Hyde, Rin, and Al for instance. There are times that they, especially Rin, do not enjoy simply sitting on the sidelines and watching their digimon fight. With digisoul charged into a persons fist, its possible to force this energy into a digimons body through physical contact… say, a punch. Digisoul allows effective hand-to-hand combat between humans and low level digimon, though most don't try it."

"And that just about wraps things up!" Meg ended, Al (Who was on what likely was his twentieth game of poker with Candlemon) giving a small applause, which lead the admin to give him an odd look. "So, anything else?"

"Well… If everything works how you said… The Envy guy… Lionel? He didn't seem too confident around Rin…" Jiro mentioned, recalling the scene where the two discovered they were paired with one another "If digisoul is based on emotions… was it really a good idea to pair the two of them up?"

"Kid, all of us are a part of one big family here." Dracmon responded, looking down at Jiro "Everybody has to know how to get along with everybody. We paired them up together specifically because they have some problems between each other. Hopefully, they can get past their problems together."

"Yes… and once they've accomplished that…" Meg added, trailing off.

"You still going on about that?" Dracmon said "Seriously, I doubt that Rin will reach that point with anybody, much less Lionel."

"Hey, I have a good intuition when it comes to these things!"

"Er…" Jiro cut into the debate between Meg and her digimon "What exactly are you guys talking about?"

The admin and her digimon exchanged glances, looking down at Jiro momentairily, before Meg chuckled a bit.

"Its nothing kid." She she said, smirking "Its probably nothing…"

---END CHAPTER---


End file.
